Puzzle Pieces
by The Warrior Sif
Summary: Modern newsies AU. Katherine's an author. Jack's an Illustrator. Cross-Posted to AO3.
1. Chapter 1

Katherine is outright fuming now. She glares at her father, tucked away behind his elaborate wooden desk, which is out of place in the otherwise contemporary building of Pulitzer Publishing. He's giving her _that look_ again, the one he gives her when it's apparent he's not seeing her as anything more than the child she no longer is.

She curls her hand in to a fist at her side, fighting the urge to slam it down on her father's desk. The action would gain her no more than a hurt hand, so she uncurls it and pulls the manuscript out of her bag instead, slamming it down on her father's desk.

"This is what I want to publish, father. My novel. My _good_ novel, which you would know if you would actually look at it," she spits out, all attempts at composure thrown out the window.

Her father doesn't even glance at the thick stick of bound paper that had just been thrown on to his desk, instead clasping his hands in his lap and crossing one leg over the other. He looks absolutely bored and it's just making Katherine more furious.

"Kitty-" he begins.

"Don't call me that. I'm not five anymore. I'm twenty and I just fast-tracked my way to an English degree-" she argues.

"It's not fast-tracking if you start a year early and still take three years to get your degree. Anyone with a brain could have done it," her father coolly rejects.

Katherine groans in exasperation. Why she even bothers to try and impress her father anymore is beyond her. She should know better than to expect anything else from him by now.

"Regardless, I am an adult now. And it's Katherine Plumber, not-"

"Not Katherine Pulitzer. Yes, I understood you the first time you made that change and were under some delusional belief that it would remove any whispers of nepotism if I magically decided to publish your book. As if everyone in this office, or even this industry, didn't already know that you are my daughter," her father coolly continues.

"There won't be any claims of nepotism if my book's good and well-received and-" Katherine halts herself before she can continue rambling. Rambling will just earn her more scorn from her father and she's already had enough of it today.

"And that's why I'm giving you this chance to prove yourself. The children's book market is one of the most competitive we've got. If you can write something that is received well there, then I will consider publishing your novel. And if it isn't well received, well, then the children's book market is oversaturated and no one will notice the failure. I'm doing you a favor; giving you a good chance to get your feet wet without hindering your chances at a future in this industry."

Katherine huffs, unimpressed by her father's self-assumed generosity, "Only you won't define what you mean by successful. How many does it need to sell? How much profit does it have to make? What do I have to do to have you consider it a success?"

Her father smiles and Katherine is tempted to roll her eyes, "You see, I knew you would warm up to the idea eventually." He rubs at his chin while dramatically looking up at the ceiling, "and you do have a point." He returns his gaze to her and his hands to their position in his lap. "Let's say one award or listed on one of the major bestsellers lists."

Katherine feels her eyes widen in shock and point at her father across his desk as she refutes, "You just said yourself how competitive the children's book market was. That-that will be nearly impossible."

"Well then you better make sure it's good," her father rebuttals as he turns back to his large desktop computer, clearly indicating he is done with their conversation.

Katherine wants to scream in frustration as she snatches her manuscript off her father's desk and storms out of his office, letting the door slam behind her. Her father is more concerned with his company's reputation than he is with her. Typical. She turns her gaze to the floor in an attempt to hide her eyes. She knows they are glistening; threatening to drip tears down her cheeks. She won't cry. She won't let him win.

It's not until she slams in to something – no, someone, that she jerks her gaze up from the floor. She jumps back from the person and pays him just enough attention to meet his eyes, stutter out an apology and continue on her way down the hall towards the front waiting area where she knows Darcy is waiting for her.

Her friend winces as she approaches, "Not good, huh?"

Katherine just grabs his hand and continues bee lining out of the high-rise. She wants fresh air; to be somewhere not under the control of her father.

"No. Not at all," she grumbles as she finally releases her friend's hand.

They've made it to a small outdoor eating area filled with assorted food trucks and Katherine hastily slumps down in a chair by the first open table she sees. She waits for Darcy to settle himself on the other side of the small metal table before continuing her rant.

"He wants me to write a children's book. A children's book!" She repeats for emphasis as she runs her hands through her hair. "Says if I can prove myself in that market he'll consider publishing my novel."

Darcy's fiddling with his phone on the table, picking it up a centimeter or so and letting it fall back down with a small rattling sound. "At least he didn't say no outright?" He questionably asks, his voice conveying his uncertainty.

Katherine slumps back in the chair and crosses her arms in reluctant acceptance. "I guess, but it's the hardest market there is, even said so himself, and he's requiring an award or a spot on a bestsellers list as proof that it is successful."

Darcy raises an eyebrow at her and purposefully suggests, "Well. Make sure you have a good illustrator then. Isn't something like half of the awards for children's books aimed at their art?"

Katherine perks up a little as she jumps on to her friend's train of thought, "He didn't specify what _type_ of award it had to win. Oh my gosh Darcy, thank you so much!"

She jumps up and around the table to hug her friend before pulling her phone out of her pocket.

Darcy smiles as he asks, "Who are you calling?"

"Pffffft. No one. I'm texting my father's assistant asking her to send me the illustrator's portfolios they have on hand."

Darcy raises an eyebrow at her as she glances over the edge of her phone at him, "Isn't she-"

Katherine nods and hums, "The crazy cat lady? Yep. But my father literally just keeps her around to keep people out of his office, so she's the person most likely to be able to get me the portfolios the fastest."

Darcy nods as Katherine hastily finishes up the last couple words of the text. "Well, I'm glad you're at least a little excited about the project now." He pulls a water bottle out of his knapsack and take a sip. "You have any idea what you are going to even write about?"

Katherine hesitates for a moment before responding, "I don't know. Something related to current events or something. Those books always have a better chance of getting attention."

Darcy tucks his water bottle away in his bag and stands from his chair, "Like that one about the zoo penguins?"

Katherine nods, starting to feel the beginnings of excitement bubble in her stomach, "Exactly."

Darcy taps his phone to view the time before turning back to her and saying, "Well I have to get to class. Not all of us can graduate early." He teases as he gently bumps in to her. He turns around and starts shuffling backwards as he continues with a slightly raised voice, "Text me if you need me!"

"Bye Darcy!" Katherine calls as she gathers her own bag and starts heading back towards her father's office. She's lucky she got as much time with her friend as she did. Darcy in his first year at med school and has been absolutely drowning in all the work. She'd felt pretty bad asking him to come with her this afternoon and taking some of his time, but he said he had the time and missed spending time with her and needed a break. She hopes she didn't set him back on anything.

She again passes by her father's building, unimpressed at the "Pulitzer Publishing" sign emblazoned above the front door with a couple tourists trying to take selfies with it in the background. She'd prefer to avoid the building entirely until she has the beginnings of an amazing children's book in hand, but she has to pass by in order to get to her apartment. She phases out a little as she lets her mind run wild with potential story ideas. The words will come later. Right now, she just needs an idea, a character, an anything to get her running.

She's drawn out of her thoughts by a voice calling out, and the sound of feet pounding against the pavement. She ignores it, sure it is not meant for her. New York is filled with people rushing about, having dramatic reunions right out of the movies, so it is not exactly an unusual occurrence. She's gotten pretty practiced at tuning it all out.

The pounding footsteps come to a halt beside her and a man's voice says, "Hey miss, I didn't get a chance ta ask you earlier, but are you okay? You looked pretty upset when we ran in to each other earlier."

Katherine turns to look at the boy now that it is evident he is speaking to her. She doesn't recognize him, but takes from what he said that he's the one she'd bumped in to earlier. "Oh, yes, I'm fine. Thank you for asking," she replies, trying to be polite. "I should be the one apologizing anyways since I'm fairly sure I'm the one who ran in to you."

The boy pulls one of his hands out of its pocket and rubs at the back of his neck as he looks to the sky, impishly smirking. "Nah, I should a been looking out better. I was too focused on not dropping anything that I wasn't paying attention to where I was goin'."

Katherine comes to a stop outside her apartment building and the boy stops with her. She looks at him, waiting to see if there was some reason for him following her. He just stands there looking at her, as if he expects her to say something.

He doesn't say anything after another minute, so she breaks the awkward silence with, "Well, this is me."

His eyes widen a little bit and blush colors his cheeks before he takes a step back from her and smiles out, "Well, I just wanted to say sorry. Have a good rest of your day."

Katherine watches as he turns and continues walking in the direction they had been headed, thoroughly perplexed by the odd encounter. He starts scuffing his feet on the ground and she swears the whistling she hears is coming from him, but he turns the corner before she can confirm the idea.

Her phone dings from its place in her purse and she thrusts her hand inside to dig it out. When she finally retrieves the thing from the depths of her bag, she unlocks it to find an email from Hannah, with a link to a dropbox called "illustrator portfolios".

Katherine smiles and mindlessly enters her building, heading for the elevator as she stuffs her phone in her pocket. She'd known her father's assistant would be quick, but she wasn't expecting her to be that quick. She makes a mental note to bring along some cookies or extra coffee next time she stops by her father's offices. Not coffee. Tea. Hannah prefers tea. The fruitier the better, if she remember correctly.

She bounces on the balls of her feet as she waits for the elevator to deliver her to her floor. Excited adrenaline is coursing through her and she wants nothing more than to sit down at her laptop in her giant beanbag chair and look through the dropbox Hannah just shared with her. There's no point trying to look at it on her phone. She's clumsy enough with technology as it is; she's liable to accidentally delete something if she tries to view any of the files on her phone. On top of that, the phone's screen is just too small for her to get a true idea of what she is even looking at.

The sooner she finds an illustrator, the sooner she can get the book published and be on her way to getting her novel published. She ignores the nagging at the back of her mind that she doesn't even have a story or characters or anything mapped out for this children's book yet. That will come with time, she's sure it will. The art is always what takes the longest anyways so she's just getting a head start. That's all. She'll brainstorm some ideas once she's contacted an artist.

The elevator dings to signal she's reached her floor, floor ten, and she steps through the doors before they've even finished opening completely. It's a quick walk to the end of the hall where her apartment door hides. She reaches for the handle to open the door before remembering that, duh, she needs her key to unlock the thing first. Katherine once again digs around in the depths of her bag, this time looking for her keys. She pulls them out by the keychain, a familiar old metal piece from a spring break trip to Mexico a couple years ago, before fumbling the right key in to her door and pushing her way inside.

She hastily drops her things on the green chair by the door and heads straight for her room. If she's going to spend a couple hours looking through portfolios, then she's going to be comfy. She pulls out her favorite, albeit a bit worn, sweatpants and the nearest baggy shirt and quickly changes in to them before snagging her computer off her desk and heading for her beanbag chair by the window. She turns around and dramatically falls in to the comfy chair, wiggling around a bit to get the stuffing settled just right before finally setting her laptop on her lap and opening it.

It's overwhelming. That's her gut reaction at the hundreds of folders inside the dropbox and it's not the gut reaction she'd been hoping for. She had been hoping one artist's style would stand out and immediately draw her in and she'd be sending them an email by dinner.

One hour passes.

Two.

Three.

It's well past dinner time when she finally finishes swiping through the last portfolio and slams her laptop shut, ignoring its incessant reminders that it really wants to be charged. She stares across the room, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness and the non-screen environment.

She stands and absentmindedly throws a frozen dinner in the microwave; not even bothering to check the label and see _what_ frozen dinner she's cooking.

Some of the artists had been easy to count out. While obviously talented, their work was not going to grab attention like she needed it to. Other artists had simply too much of a classical or generic style. She needs something fresh.

Her attention is drawn again when the microwave beeps. She tiredly meanders over and pulls out her dinner, some sort of pasta apparently, and sets it on the counter before the plastic can scald her hand. She absentmindedly digs around in her silverware drawer in search of a fork.

One artist keeps coming back to the forefront of her mind, intruding on her thoughts. His work had been excellent, modern, unique. Exactly what she needs. He'd included several character studies which ranged from people to animals to anthropomorphic household objects with ranges of emotions. His characters felt like living beings and they didn't even have a story to go with them, but something about the way he showed all ranges of life and emotion in his character studies had drawn her in. His backgrounds weren't overly detailed, but it seemed to be on purpose. He was letting the characters shine, as she figured they should.

She takes a bite of her pasta, which is half cold half burning hot, and walks back over to pull her laptop off the beanbag chair. She needs to look at his portfolio again.

She opens her laptop to find a dark screen, her reflection blankly staring back at her. She jams her fingers at some of the buttons, hoping to bring it back to life, before reluctantly accepting she needs to go and grab it's charger from her room and plug it in. She begrudgingly does just that and impatiently waits for the screen to light back up.

She pulls up his portfolio and idly flips through the pages as she mindlessly eats her pasta, not even really tasting it. On second review, she likes his art even more. There's a couple pictures of paintings he's done included at the end that she'd somehow missed on her initial scan. They're …wow. She wonders briefly why he's not focusing on putting on a show and just counts herself lucky. The date on his portfolio even says it was just scanned in to the drpobox today. Extra lucky.

She resolves to ignore her instinct to wait and mull over the decision for a couple of days and instead email the artist now. She wants to get him before someone else does. Her book needs him.

Quickly scanning the contact info, she quickly copies out his email address and pastes it in to a blank email, before beginning to type:

 _Dear Mr. Kelly,_

 _…_

* * *

 _._

 _._

 ** _Thank you for reading! As always, reviews are treasured!_**


	2. Chapter 2

**2- Katherine**

The coffee is extra busy today, with people rushing inside to escape from the cold. A couple snowflakes barge in with each new customer, each one looking less prepared for the city's first snow of the season than the last.

Katherine sits in the back corner at her favorite table, which is tucked just behind a half wall to the side of the counter. It's out of the way, but also gives her a clear line of sight towards the front door. She curls her hands around her still-steaming cup of coffee and relishes the feeling of warmth flooding her fingers. She can't exactly look down on the rest of the patrons for not being prepared for the snowy day when she wasn't quite prepared herself. She'd forgotten her mittens at home and her fingers had paid the price on her walk over from her apartment.

"Twice in one week, what are the chances?" A man's voice interrupts her thoughts.

Katherine turns to look and finds the boy from earlier this week standing beside her table, hands wrapped around his own steaming mug of coffee. He looks just about as prepared for the cold as she was, with a dark green beanie tucked over his head, but only a plain paint-splattered long-sleeved shirt to cover his torso. A simple bag is slung across his body and hangs at his hip. He's gives her a charming smile.

"I'm waiting for someone," Katherine answers, trying her best to politely get the man to go away. She doesn't have time for idle chatter right now.

The man chuckles, "Well, that's all right cause I'm looking for someone." He exaggeratingly owls his head to scan the room. "Who's you waiting for?"

Katherine hums, debating whether or not she should actually answer the man, before finally giving in, "I'm waiting for someone by the name of Jack Kelly."

He beams, showing off his sparkling smile and sets his coffee mug down on the table, nearly sloshing what she can now tell is hot chocolate over the edge of the cup in the process, and holds his right hand out to her, "Jack Kelly. Nice ta meet ya."

She gives him an unsure look before taking his outstretched hand and shaking it. When they separate, he plops down in to the chair across the table from her.

"What, ya don't believe me?" He asks before taking a sip of hit hot chocolate.

Katherine blushes, "No, it's just a little too convenient, don't you think? That you come over to me and just happen to be the person I am waiting for?"

The man – Jack, chuckles and digs in his pocket before pulling out his worn brown leather wallet. He opens it and slides a card out of the clear window displayed on one side and holds it out to her.

Katherine takes the card and just gives it a long enough glance to confirm is does indeed say Jack Kelly before passing it over. She feels herself fill with a little bit of shame at not believing him. "I'm sorry-"

"Ah, don't worry 'bout it," he smirks out as he tucks his ID back in to his wallet and then his wallet back in to his pocket. "Pretty girl like you probably gets hounded by guys all the time."

She's sure her cheeks are flushed an even darker crimson now, no longer from the cold, but from Jack's compliment. It's not that she's not used to hearing such things, but something about the way he says it makes it different than all the times before. She takes a sip of her coffee to try and hide her embarrassment.

Jack's smile falters a little when he doesn't get a response to his compliment, but he continues on anyways, "Well, I don't know what they showed ya to make ya want to talk to me, but I brought a portfolio with me in case you wants to look." He pulls a thick portfolio out of his bag, papers sticking out every which way, and pushes it across the table to her.

Katherine composes herself and smiles, "Thank you, I appreciate it. The portfolio they shared with me was certainly smaller than this one." She pulls the binder over and starts flipping through the pages to glance at more of his work. She's seen some of them before, in the digital version she perused earlier this week, but there is a great deal more work than just those.

There are portraits and darker pieces here, ones distinctly his style but not exactly what would be called for in a children's book. She pauses on a pencil portrait of two boys on a swing set with matching smiles. She recognizes them from some of the previous portraits she's looked through. "Who are these boys? They seem to appear a lot," she asks.

Jack's smile lessens a little as he hastily responds, "My brothers." He doesn't expand beyond that and Katherine doesn't push.

Katherine finishes flipping thought the binder, all the while taking small sips of her coffee, relishing the warmth it fills her with. When she finally closes the binder and looks back up at Jack, he's pointedly staring out the window and the lightly falling snow.

"I still love your work," Katherine starts, hoping to pull back his attention.

He turns, his face blank for a moment before his smile returns. "That's nice of ya," he says before taking another sip of hot chocolate that he's holding.

"So would you be interested in illustrating my book?" She continues, hoping to spark some sort of interest in him.

"Ya haven't even told me what its about yet, so…" He questions, waving his hand in her direction, clearly indicating he wants her to explain further.

Katherine shifts uncomfortably in her seat before quietly admitting, "I don't actually have much of a story yet, just a couple ideas…". She looks to her hands clasped in her lap, fully expecting Jack to give her some sort of snarky put-down and just get up and walk away.

"Then tell me your ideas," he continues.

Katherine whips her head upwards to look him in the eyes, "Are you serious? You're not mad that I don't have a full story yet? I mean, I have a novel if you want to read that, but the company is refusing to consider publishing it until I prove myself, which is why I don't have anything yet-"

Jack motions with her hands for her to stop talking, "I get the idea." He pauses to set his empty mug back on the table. "And no, I ain't mad or nothing. It prob'ly works better this way. Sometime when I'm doing somethin' someone's commissioned from me, they've got so much of their own ideas stuck in their head, it's nearly impossible to make 'em happy."

She softly smiles, "I'm so happy that you're not just giving up on me."

He smirks, "Give up on you? Neva. But your story…"

Katherine blushes again before continuing, "Yeah, that." She pulls her notebook out of her bag. "I only started brainstorming last night, but here's what I've got. I want to do something related to current social issues-"

"Social issues?" Jack gives her a questioning look. "Like the gun debate and everything? Look, that might sell to politically charged parents, but no kid cares about those things. It should be something that kids care about."

Katherine crosses her arms and questions, "Aren't I the author here?"

Jack gives her a mischievous look before matching her position, "Well you ain't written anythin' yet. Don't even have an idea." He matches her stare.

She has to blink first and Jack chuckles, losing the tension in his position. "Okay, fine. What issues do kids care about? But we have to remember the book has to cater to the parents as much to the kids since the parents are the ones with the money to buy it in the first place."

Jack shrugs, "I don't know. Empower them I guess. Tell them they can do whatever they want, no matter what their damn parents tell them they can't do." A stony look has settled in Jack's eyes and it makes Katherine want to lean away from him, admittedly a little scared.

"Personal experience?" She softly presses.

Jack's eyes soften immediately and he methodically shakes away the tension that had set in, "Sorry, I shouldn't have said that." He looks to the floor and rubs at the back of his neck. "Just show 'em they can do whatever they want. Give them a good example to look up to."

Katherine softly smiles when Jack looks back up to her with expectant eyes, "I like it. That's definitely something I can work with." She finishes off her cup of coffee as she watches Jack continue to recompose himself. She's itching to ask him more about what got him so worked up, but they just met officially today. It would be inappropriate of her to push.

She decides it's time for a change of subject. "So you paint too? I saw a couple pictures of your painting in the portfolio they sent me."

Jack smiles as he absentmindedly picks at the flecks of blue paint on his sleeves. "Yeah, that's where I do most of my work. It's the easiest place to get commission for since everyone always wants paintings for some reason. On top of that, I do the sets for the theatre next to my apartment building and the owner's nice enough to send people my way when they ask after 'em."

"I'd love to see them sometime," Katherine blurts out without thinking. She'd love to see them, she really would, but that sounded like she was asking for something more akin to a date. It's too late to take the statement back now.

Jack taps his phone screen to check the time. "I's got time now if you want to come over and see them. I'm only a couple blocks down that way," he jerks his thumb down the street.

Katherine blushes, "I wouldn't want to intrude on such short notice."

Jack stands, sticks his portfolio in his bag, and readjusts it over his shoulder. He holds out his hand to her to pull her from her seat. "It's not intrudin' when I's invited ya."

She hesitates for a moment before taking Jack's hand and allowing him to pull her from her seat. She releases his hand and shrugs on her coat before throwing her bag back over her shoulder and stuffing her hand back in her pockets.

Jack leads the way out the door and back in to the soft snowfall. It's the fluffy kind that floats down from the sky, the kind that always tempts her to stick out her tongue and try to catch some. She resists the urge today, given her current company. Jack walks beside her, hands stuffed in his jean pockets and head tilted towards the sky.

"Aren't you cold?" She asks, shivering a little even in her warm coat.

His gaze turns down to her and Katherine tries to ignore the small clumps of snowflakes that have settled on his eyelashes, highlighting his green eyes. Nope, she's not staring at his eyes. Nope.

He shrugs as he replies, "Guess I'm just so used ta being cold that I don't notice it anymore."

The idea sounds absolutely absurd to Katherine, but she doesn't press further in an attempt to keep herself warm. The chill that had evaded her mouth when she had opened it to speak had been very unwelcome.

They come to a stop outside a stoop leading up to a small blue door. Just next door is the marquee for a theatre and Katherine asks, "Is this the theatre you do the sets for?"

Jack fumbles with his keys as he responds, "Yeah, owner's a real nice lady. Letting me and my bud rent this place for cheap so long as I keep doing sets for her, which I love doin' so it's more than a fair trade so far as I's concerned."

By the time he's finished explaining, Jack's managed to get the door unlocked and open. He's standing to the side and gesturing for Katherine to enter first, which she gratefully does, glad to get away from the cold. He quickly follows and pushes the door shut behind him.

Katherine looks around at the new surroundings. There's a door to the right and a narrow staircase leading to another door on the second floor. While she's distracted, Jack starts climbing the staircase.

"That's Miss Medda's place. We're upstairs," he calls, not evening glancing behind him, but obviously not hearing her following. Katherine glances at the downstairs door one more time before rushing after Jack.

He doesn't bother with looking for a key this time, even though the door obviously locks. Jack just twists the knob and walks right in, Katherine following right after.

His apartment is small, and sparsely furnished. There's a small living room with a worn couch to the left and a kitchen to the right. Right in front of them is a hallway with three doors, she assumes they are the bedrooms and bathroom.

"Jack! Did you go out without a jacket again!" A tall, lanky boy with dark brown hair yells from the kitchen table, where he's poring over a book.

In front of her, Jack shrugs, "Ain' that cold out Davey." He looks over his shoulder at her and then steps to the side as he says, "Oh yeah, Davey this is Katherine. Kath, that guy's my friend and roommate Davey. Didn't figure he'd be home on account of the fact he's been livin' at the library studyin' for all his finals."

Katherine gives Davey a small wave, "Hello. What are you studying?" She wonder if Jack is a student too.

"Pre-law and Jack, I haven't been living at the library. You're just never home," he quickly returns his attention to Jack. "And Spot's here to see you. Someone had to be here to let him in, since you apparently forgot again."

Jack whips his head to the couch, where a short muscular boy is sitting, playing on his phone, "Nice job trying to remember this time Jackie. Good thing I texted Davey-boy before coming over this time."

Jack returns his attention to Katherine and formally introduces the new boy, "Spot, this is Katherine. Kath, that's Spot, my youngest brother's boyfriend."

Spot lifts his head from his phone just enough to glare at Jack, "I's told ya we ain't dating-"

Jack cuts him off, "but you wants ta be and I's sure ya will be as soon as he's free of that home."

Katherine's head is swirling with unanswered questions now. Why doesn't Jack live with his brothers? Is Jack a student too?

Spot just further adds to the mystery, "Kelly, I's got to go ta work so if ya don't mind, leave yer girlfriend alone for a couple minutes so we can talk about Race and Crutchie."

"I'm not – we're not-" Katherine begins.

"We's just working on a project together Spotty, nothin' more than that," Jack says at the same time.

Upon hearing Jack's response, Katherine returns her attention to him and, eyes wide, asks, "So you'll actually do it?"

Jack gives her a questioning look, raising an eyebrow and tilting his head, "Yeahs, so long as ya actually write somethin', I don't see why not. Did I not say that earlier? I meant ta say that."

Excitement once again bubbles up inside Katherine and she exclaims, "Thank you! Oh I can't wait!"

Suddenly Davey is standing with them and placing a hand on Jack's shoulder, "You're illustrating now, Jack?"

Jack nods, gives Katherine a discerning glance, before carefully answering, "Well, they said I needed a normal job and this is a lot more normal than just doin' commissions."

Spot interjects the moment from where he's still seated on the couch, "Kelly, you want ta talk or what?"

Jack looks to Katherine and Davey before Davey, apparently getting some sort of signal from Jack, says, "Katherine, I can take you back to see his paintings while they talk? They won't be too long." His tone clearly indicates she needs to say yes.

Katherine gives Jack a questioning look, which he blatantly ignores, before turning to Davey and confirming, "Thank you, I would appreciate that."

Davey removes his hand from Jack's shoulder and stuffs it back in his sweater pocket before leading her down the hallway to the last door. He swiftly opens it and leads her inside, before following her and closing it behind him.

Katherine looks around what must be Jack's room. There is a small twin bed shoved in to the corner and clothes falling out of the open closet, but otherwise the room is pretty clean. On the wall to her left are about a dozen canvases neatly stacked against the wall and an artist's toolbox tucked in to the corner. It's covered in every color of paint she could possibly imagine, and more she can't even describe.

She returns her attention to Davey, who has taken a seat on the edge of Jack's bed. He looks uncomfortable and tired, with dark circles under his eyes. It's not an unfamiliar look for a college student- especially a pre-law one in the midst of studying for finals.

"I'm sorry, I told Jack I didn't want to intrude," she begins, hoping to calm the other boy's nerves little.

He casts his gaze up at her and softly says, "There's no need to apologize. Jack has every right to bring people over. He just apparently forgot his meeting with Spot this afternoon. Again." He rubs at his tired eyes.

"Well I'm still interrupting your studying and I'm sorry for that," she continues.

Davey smirks and Katherine mimics the action. "I needed a break anyways. I think I've read that same page a couple times over now and I can't tell you even one topic listed there."

"Is Jack a student too?" She questions, hoping to get an answer to at least one of her questions.

Davey thinks for a moment before responding, "Not really, no. He takes some night classes every now and then, but I've had a hard time convincing him to commit to it seriously when he's doing more than fine for himself doing commissions and what not."

"So he does commissions regularly? And makes good money off them? Why did he mention needing a regular job earlier if he's making enough money doing that?" She blurts out all of her questions at once, leaving off _and if he's making good money, why doesn't he get a nicer apartment._

Davey shifts uncomfortably in his seat before carefully responding, "He does them pretty regularly, yeah. Miss Medda's good at sending people his way when they laud the sets he's done for her and yeah, he makes pretty good money off them." He pauses and Katherine can see him biting at his cheek, "You're going to have ask him the last question yourself. I'm not comfortable speaking for him on his personal life."

Katherine nods her head as she notes to worry on Davey's face, like he fears he hasn't told her enough. "Thank you, I'll ask him when I get the chance."

Davey relaxes a little after that before tacking on, "You might want to wait a bit though, for a day he hasn't just met with Spot. He's not usually up for much talking afterwards."

"Oh," Katherine blurts out, pushing the question to the back of her mind. "Thank you, I'll keep that in mind."

The door swings open and Jack enters. He looks drained, like his talk with Spot sucked all the energy out of him. Davey clear his throat and rushes behind Jack to exit the room. Jack goes to take Davey's place on the bed and rubs his face with his hands.

Katherine walks over and sets a hand on Jack's shoulder in an attempt of comfort. He stiffens under her touch, but doesn't shy away. "Everything all right?"

Jack raises his head from his hands and puts on a weak smile as he sits up. "Yeah, fine, sorry. I forgot he was coming over today. Did Davey get a chance to show you the paintings I've got in here?"

"Yes, they're beautiful," Katherine lies. She can tell Jack is exhausted and she's ready to leave and give him the space he clearly needs right now.

He smiles at the complement. "Can I get your number? I don't like email much. That way you can just text me when you's got some ideas?"

Katherine nods and quickly pulls her phone from her pocket, "Here, just put yours in and I'll text you later." Jack takes the phone from here and quickly types in his number, saving the contact under 'Jack K.'.

"I'm excited to work together Jack. I think together we can make something great," she softly smiles as she pats him on the shoulder with the hand she had set there earlier. Her mind is currently swirling with more questions about Jack himself than with ideas for her, no-their book, but she's sure the right idea will come with time. And that idea will be great.

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 **Thanks for reading! Reviews are always appreciated!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you everyone for the awesome reviews! Enjoy!**

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Katherine is trying her best, she really is, to ignore Jack's consistent pestering.

"Tell me _again_ why we're hangin' out in the children's section of the library?" Jack asks again as he flicks her hair.

She can't help the smirk that plays across her face as the curl Jack just flicked falls in to her line of sight. She slams the book in her lap shut before turning to give Jack the attention he apparently desperately desires.

"Jack, what are you doing!" She whisper shouts at her illustrator as his current position sets in. He's draped himself upside down over the back of one the stuffed children's chairs. His back rests on the seat, his head on the floor, and his knees are hooked over the back.

"I'm bored," he whines in a tone more appropriate for the clients this section of the library is intended for than for a professional artist.

She refuses to humor his antics and tries to keep a straight face as she instructs, "Please sit normally Jack. We're in the children's section and you're setting an awful example."

Jack chuckles before rolling sideways off the chair. He lays there on the floor for a moment before lazily standing and flopping back in to the chair with his arms held out in a gesture of defeat.

"Betta?" He smirks before crossing his arms back over his chest and rolling his eyes.

"Yes, thank you," she responds before appending, "and, once again, we are here in the _children's_ sections because we are writing a _children's_ book and I thought it would be good to get some inspiration and see what our target audience is interested in." Jack opens his mouth to speak, but she cuts him off, continuing, "and I was hoping that maybe you'd draw some characters instead of just drawing me."

Jack's cheeks immediately blush, but he doesn't miss a beat in replying, "Well you's not given me any characters yet and I like drawin' you."

Katherine sighs. They'd been at this for three weeks now, meeting every couple of days to try and come up with a solid premise, but so far inspiration has not struck. Jack's been incorrigibly charming each time they've met and she tries to push down the little inkling in the back of her head that's telling her she's starting to care for him too much. As more than a partner - more than a friend. He's so damn touchy too, always pulling at her curls or taking her hand; it's near impossible to not think that maybe he feels something _more_ too.

Suddenly Jack is sitting on the couch next to her. His arm drapes itself across her shoulders and he absentmindedly rubs circles in her upper arm, as if sensing her frustration. With his other hand, he pulls the book from her lap and quickly leafs through it.

"Ah, we'll get there eventually. Can't force it out," he encourages. "And whatever we do is sure as hell going to be better than whatever this is."

She whips her head around to face him directly, "Jack!" She whisper yells once again, trying to convey her disappointment. "We are in the _children_ 's section. Language!"

He drops the book on the floor before rolling his eyes and drawing his fingers across his lips in a 'zip it' gesture and slumping back in the couch cushions. His other arm, which is still draped across her shoulder, stops rubbing circles and goes limp.

Katherine leans forward and rests her head in her hands before groaning in frustration. The situation is starting to feel a little hopeless. Maybe she should just let Jack be until she's got a solid idea, then try and see what he says.

"Maybe, maybe – we just need to call it a day Jack. Try again tomorrow," she suggests.

Jack goes taut besides her and he sits up. "Nuh-uh, I can't tomorrow."

She turns her head to weakly glare at him from where it is still resting in her hands. "And why not?"

"I told ya that I'm busy the first and third Saturdays of the month. Any other time you want me; I'm yours. But not those two days."

Katherine turns her head once again so that the heels of her palms can push in to her eyes and lets herself get distracted by the colors that flash in the darkness from the pressure. Taking a deep breath, she responds, "Sorry Jack, I forgot. Maybe we can try a little bit longer today then give it a rest for the weekend then?"

Katherine is focusing to her left, expecting to hear Jack's response, when a familiar voice comes from her right, putting her a bit out of focus.

"Katherine?"

She sits up, momentarily squishing Jack's arm behind her. She shifts forward so he can move it and he once again drapes it across her shoulders. Smiling, she replies, "Hey Darcy. What you doing here?"

Her friend very obviously looks between her and Jack and smirks, "Am I interrupting something?"

Jack removes his arm from her shoulders and not so subtly shifts away, before in a too-friendly voice responding, "Nah, just another failed brainstorming section."

Darcy looks uncomfortable, even with Jack's statement, so Katherine prompts, "What are you doing here? Don't you have class?"

He shakes his head, "Not today. Got cancelled because the professor got walking pneumonia so I thought I'd come here and pick up some more books for my research project."

"Oh. Hopefully he gets better soon. It must be awful to get sick when all your students are getting ready for finals and I can't imagine that makes your studying any easier."

Darcy shrugs. "Not too concerned. Probably better for me honestly since this means the TA will be hosting the study hours and he's a bit more up to date with the material." He pauses before continuing, "Anyways, you aren't answering your phone apparently? Your father called me because he couldn't get a hold of you. He says it's urgent."

Katherine rolls her eyes. "That man thinks apricots coming in to season requires urgent action; I'm not too concerned. Anyways, I told him I was working at the library with Jack today. And you know, it's a library, so I turned my phone off."

"Well if you could call him so he would stop calling me, that would be great," Darcy straight-faces, his annoyance at having to deal with her father apparent.

Katherine stands and grabs her phone from her purse, "I'm sorry Darce. I'll step out and give him a call now. We were just needing a break I think anyways."

She glances back at Jack to find him curiously watching her and Darcy. He meets her gaze and shrugs before slouching back even further in to the sofa and mumbling, "Not like we're making any progress."

"Well I've got to get going," Darcy says as he glances at his phone. "A group wants to get together and study in about an hour and if I leave now I'll just make it in time. See you for lunch something this week Kath?"

"Absolutely," she confirms. "If you're heading that way anyways, walk me out?"

Darcy nods and they lazily exit the children's section and make way for the front door. Katherine turn on her phone as they walk and waits for it to boot.

"So that's Jack?" Darcy asks.

"Yeah. I should have properly introduced the two of you, but that's him. Really talented, but I swear the actual children here have more patience than him," She comments as Darcy pauses to scan his books and his library card at one of the scanning stations.

"He likes you," he teases, drawing out each word and pausing his scanning to poke her in the side.

Katherine pokes him back and tries to suppress her blush but can't find the proper words to respond.

Darcy finishes up scanning and tucks his book and receipt in his bag. "Well I'd like to meet him properly at some point."

She walks through the glass door as Darcy holds it open, mumbling a thank you as they continue to the front steps and pause. "Maybe I'll get him to come to lunch this week? Maybe we just need to get out and see some other people to get some ideas."

Darcy chuckles and rolls his eyes as he steps down a step, "Stop denying you like him Kath and just ask him out for a real date, and not one with me? I don't want to be the third wheel."

Katherine blushes, embarrassed that Darcy has such a good read on her. "I didn't-"

Darcy fully laughs now. "I'd love to meet him Kath, but next time you better be introducing him as your boyfriend. It's painfully obvious you like each other." He glances at his watch. "Shoot, I've got to get going. Please call your dad so he'll leave me alone?"

She simply nods as she watches Darcy bound down the steps, off to catch the next bus or train she imagines. She takes a minute to compose herself and slow her rapidly beating heart. Did she really like Jack? Was it that obvious?

Katherine pushes the questions to the back of her mind and dials her father's number, preparing to chew him out for stressing out Darcy so close to finals. Med school is stressful enough and he doesn't need the extra load from her father.

The phone picks up right after the second ring.

 _"Kitty? Where are you? Why aren't you answering my calls?"_ Her father's voice echoes.

Katherine sighs and shifts her weight in to one hip, "I told you earlier I was going to be at the library with Jack brainstorming today. And it is the library so I had my phone off. You know, be respectful of the quiet place and what not?"

 _"Jack? As in Jack Kelly?"_

"Yes father, how many other Jacks do I know?" She growls, her frustration growing. "And if I knew another Jack why would be brainstorming at the library together for a book that _Jack Kelly_ and I are working on?"

 _"Kitty-I want you to leave now. Leave your stuff, I'll replace whatever you brought with you, but please leave."_

"And why would I do that? Sure, we haven't been having a terribly productive day, but we made plans and I'm not ditching him just because you want me to."

 _"Please Kitty-"_

"We've been over this. For goodness sakes Father, stop calling me Kitty; I'm not a child!"

 _"Fine, Katherine, but please leave. And stay on the phone with me until you get back to your apartment or in a taxi or something. Please?"_

Anxiousness starts to set in at her father's persistence and she frowns, "What is it Father? What's happened?" Why do you need me to go home so desperately?"

 _"I want you as far away from that piece of scum-"_

"Excuse me?" Katherine exclaims, shocked. "What did you call Jack?"

 _"Katherine, stop interrupting me, please. I want you to get as far away from his as possible. I'll find you a new illustrator. Are you leaving yet?"_

"I'm not going anywhere until you explain this ridiculousness and I don't want another illustrator. Jack is fine, excellent even and he's going to help me meet your ridiculous demands to get my novel published."

She can hear her father sigh on the other end of the line. _"He has a record. I pulled some strings and had a friend look in to him – you've been spending so much time together - I wanted to know everything about him."_

Katherine gapes a moment in shock. Jack? A record? That didn't make sense. She can't imagine him having done anything illegal, so she pushes back, "And what does the record say? I trust Jack; surely it's just something stupid."

 _"…I don't know. It's a juvenile record so it was sealed once he turned eighteen."_

"And nothing since he turned eighteen?" She questions, now thoroughly annoyed by her father's overprotectiveness.

 _"No, but-"_

"But nothing Father. I trust him and if there's nothing since he's turned eighteen and his record was sealed then it was obviously some stupid adolescent mistakes. Now I'm going to go back inside and continue to brainstorm with him."

" _Kath-"_

"No. Whatever you are going to say: no. I'm going to hang up now, turn off my phone, and go back inside. If you want to talk later, then call me after you eat dinner."

Katherine jabs her finger in to the red "end call" button harder than necessary, cutting off the beginning tones of more of her father's insistences. Her father is insane, that's it. And him using his connections to pull info that's not even publicly available on Jack is _not_ okay. She's sure he's never done anything like this to any of her other friends…or has he?

She shakes her head in an attempt to clear her thoughts. Jack's good at reading people – or at least thinks he is, so if she goes in there all riled up he's sure to ask. But there is no way she's just leaving now, if only to spite her father.

Katherine tucks her phone back in to her pocket and walks back in to the library, purposely trying to appear casual.

"What's up?" Jack asks from where he has once again draped himself over a children's chair.

She shrugs. "Not much, just my father being an overprotective jerk."

Jack cocks an eyebrow at her – a strange look from how he is hanging upside down – and asks, "Overprotective jerk? Isn't that just part of the 'good parent' job description or whatever?"

Katherine sighs and falls back in to the couch she had vacated earlier. "Sure. I guess. He just takes it a step too far. Can we change the subject?"

"Nope," he says, popping the "p". He ignores the glare she sends his way and continues, "It's obviously bothering you and you're not going to be able to think about book ideas until it stops bothering you."

Katherine nods uncomfortably. Jack's right and she absolutely hates it.

"Come on, spit it out," Jack eggs from his still-ridiculous position draped over the children's chair.

She hums in thought for a moment, "Can – can I ask you something personal?"

Jack hesitates and his face shows his discomfort, "You can ask, but I might not answer."

Katherine groans. Why does he have to make it so hard? "No, I've changed my mind. Let's just call it a day and meet up again on Monday." She stands and starts to gather her notepads and pencils in to her bag.

Jack stands too and comes to stand at her side, hands stuffed in his pockets. "Well now you've got me curious – what's the question?"

"Just forget I ever said anything Jack," Katherine groans as she starts quickly walking towards the front door of the library.

She's made it outside before Jack has gathered his things and has caught up. His hand on her shoulder stops her in her path and Katherine turns around to face him.

"Did I say something wrong?" Jack asks, desperation clear in his face. "If I did – I'm sorry. I'm so sorry and I'll try and make it up to you."

Katherine can't take the desperation on Jack's face. She shouldn't have ever said anything. If she leaves him now he'll continue to think he's the problem, but if she asks the question she could just make it worse.

She places her hand on his upper arm and tries to calm him as she slowly says, "No Jack. You're fine and you've done nothing wrong. It's just my father-"

"He say something to upset you? I'll go give him-" he continues with a smirk on his face.

"No – well ,yes, he-", she pauses to take a deep breath before spitting out, "he said you had a record and didn't want me to be work with you anymore."

Jack steps out of her grip and stares at her, the expression on his face breaking her heart. His face is quickly draining of color and his eyes are starting to tear up.

"Jack – I told him I don't care and I definitely want to keep working with you – I was just upset he thought that was even an okay thing to do in the first place."

"Those records are supposed to be sealed. I was just a kid-" he whispers out, his voice shaky.

Katherine steps forwards to place her hand on his arm again but he quickly jerks away. "Jack, please-"

He doesn't even look at her before turning, mumbling out "I'm gonna go", and nearly running away from her.

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 **Thank you for reading! As always, reviews are adored!**


	4. Chapter 4

"I don't know Darce, it feels like a BIG mistake," Katherine sighs as she flops down on to her bed.

"Well, you said it yourself: you didn't really have much of a choice. Either let him continue to think he did something wrong, or tell him what your asshole father said," Darcy's calm voice comes from the other end of the line.

Katherine heavily sighs again as she pulls over one of her pillows to hug to her chest. "I know, but you should have seen his face Darce. He looked so…heartbroken. Like I kicked his puppy or something, but worse."

"You? Kicking a puppy? Never." Darcy chuckled on the other end of the line. "Just text him Kath. The worst he can do is ignore you. Maybe he just needs time."

"But it's been two days. I know he was busy Saturday and I really hope I didn't ruin whatever his plans were and then Sunday just didn't seem like the right time to try and get a hold of him again and now it's Monday and I said on Friday that we should meet Monday but I don't want to screw up-"

"Kath, breathe. Worrying about it isn't going to do anything. Just send him a text – ask him to coffee or lunch or dinner or something and give him time to respond. Not everyone lives on their phone like you like to do."

Katherine groans. "I know, I know. I'm just scared of messing-"

"Scared of what? Losing your illustrator? Or have you finally admitted to yourself that you like him and you're worried about never getting a chance to try that out?"

Katherine buries her head in her pillow before mumbling, "I don't know anymore. You know me too well Darce."

"We've been friend ever since you threw that plastic dinosaur at my head in first grade. Of course I can tell when you're crushing on someone."

Katherine is about to respond when her phone dings, signaling a text message, "One second Darce, I just got a text."

FROM: Jack

Can we talk?

Katherine raises her phone up to her ear and is prepared to respond, but Darcy's already talking.

"So I've got two guesses. Jack or your father?"

"I swear you're psychic or something." She pauses to glance at her screen once again and double checks she hasn't imagined the text. "It's Jack. He wants to talk. What do you think that means?"

"I think it means I should hang up on you so you can text him back," Darcy laughs.

"Uggggghhhh. Fine. Don't forget about lunch on Wednesday though."

"I've never forgotten before. Not planning on starting now. Bring Jack when you guys make up and finally admit you like each other, okay?"

Katherine can't help but laugh at Darcy's optimism. "Sure Darce. If that happens. He could just want to talk about never seeing me again."

She can hear Darcy furiously trying to cover his laugh on the other end. "Stop being so negative."

"I'll stop being so negative when things don't go horribly wrong when I start thinking they are going okay," Katherine retorts.

"Not every is out to hinder your success Kath. Your father is the outlier not the rule."

She groans at the reminder of the man who's put her in this mess in the first place.

"So … I'm going to hang up now so you can text Jack back. And you will text Jack back and sort things out with him so that I will see both of you at lunch on Wednesday."

"Of cours-" she starts, but stops when she realizes that the quiet murmur from the other end of the line has been replaced by the monotone beep of an empty line. "He actually hung up on me," she whines to herself as she looks at Jack's text again.

FROM: Jack

Can we talk?

She hesitates for a moment, before furiously typing and retyping her reply until it is perfect. She's absolutely terrified of saying the wrong thing.

TO: Jack

Yes. When works for you?

Katherine hits the send button without hesitation. If she waits, she'll just keep continuously editing the text and never actually send anything. She assures herself that it is fine. No one replies quickly anyway. He's just stepped away from his phone. That's it. She has nothing to worry about.

This of course doesn't stop her from staring blankly at her phone, waiting for his reply to appear. When the little bubble pops up signifying he's typing, her heart starts to race uncomfortably.

FROM: Jack

Now? I'm at home. Can you come here?

FROM: Jack

Do you remember where it is?

FROM: Jack

Or just google the Larkin theatre. We're next door

Each text comes in quick successions, as if he had not spent as much time painfully poring over the wording as she had. She smiles and jumps up from the bed to find her coat as she texts back.

TO: Jack

Yes. I'm on my way. Be there in ten.

Or at least she thinks it will be ten minutes. She doesn't remember his apartment being more than a couple blocks away. Locating her jacket on the hook by the front door, she quickly pulls it on as her phone dings yet again.

FROM: Jack

K

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The walk to Jack's apartment building was exactly as long as she figured it would be and precisely ten minutes after leaving her own, she is standing at the front door. She hesitantly raises a hand to knock at the worn wood. After a couple of moments spent debating whether or not she should knock again, Katherine hears footsteps approaching the door from the opposite side.

The door opens to reveal a woman who she doesn't recognize. She's wearing a satiny pink robe and her hair is filled with curlers. She's taller than her and exudes a confidence that Katherine has a hard time believing even exists. She's – oh – is also looking down at her with a disapproving smirk.

"Um, hi? I'm here to see Jack. Maybe I have the wrong address-" Katherine begins before the other woman cuts her off.

"So you're the young lady who's got my Jack all in a tizzy," the other woman accuses in a playful fashion.

Katherine winces. "I'm here to apologize again if he'll let me."

The woman doesn't get the chance to reply, as the sound of bare feet slamming on wood comes from behind the her along with Jack's voice yelling, "Sorry Miss Medda, I should have gotten ready faster and answered the door myself."

Jack finally appears off to the woman's side before carefully reaching his arm out around her and waving for Katherine to come in.

The woman, Miss Medda, steps off to the side so Katherine can fully see Jack and the disheveled mess he's currently in. His hair is standing up every which way, his green t-shirt is wrinkled beyond what she thought was possible, and his ripped jeans are splattered with every color paint possible. Dark bags rest under his eyes and she internally winces at the thought that her words caused him to lose sleep.

"Well come on," Jack emotionlessly encourages and starts making his way back towards the staircase up towards his and Davey's apartment.

Katherine glances at the woman one more time before sidestepping around her and following Jack up the stairs. The front door slams shut behind them and afterwards she can feel the woman's eyes boring in to her back. She hesitates in the entryway if the boys' apartment and watches Jack flop down in to the couch.

"You can come in. I did invite you here, didn't I?" Jack asks, his voice once again not betraying any emotion.

As Katherine quietly shuts the apartment door, Jack rests his head back against the couch and closes his eyes. If she hadn't seen him awake seconds earlier, she would have guessed he was asleep. She carefully makes her way around him to sit on the opposite end of the couch, trying her best not to disturb him.

She's not sure how long they sit in uncomfortable silence before footsteps once again can be heard coming up the stairs to the apartment. The door opens to reveal Davey, arms loaded with bags of groceries. It takes him a moment to notice them, but when his gaze finally lands on them, he does a double take.

"Good. He finally called you. I've been telling him he needs to do that since he got home Friday," he says as he dumps the bags of groceries on the kitchen counter.

Katherine looks to Jack when he responds, "Well I texted her – but sure, same thing." He rubs his hand over his eyes and sits up a little to glare at his roommate. "It's not like you wouldn't stop texting me until I did."

Katherine squirms in her seat. It is as if the temperature in the room has instantly dropped ten degrees.

"Well, I'm glad you texted me Jack," she starts and he turns to look at her with a blank gaze. "I-"

Jack is the one squirming now, with her attention on him. He's rubbing at his upper left arm with his right hand and when he nudges his shirt sleeve up, it reveals a forming bruise.

Katherine is about to ask about it when Davey beats her to it, exclaiming, "Jack! What happened?"

Jack looks down at what he's apparently been doing absentmindedly and immediately tugs his shirtsleeve down to once again cover the bruise. " 'S nothing Dave – just wrestled with Spotty a bit yesterday to get out some steam. Stop being such a mother hen."

Katherine's glance at Davey tells her he doesn't believe Jack's story one bit. His following, "Jack…" just confirms it.

"It's nothing Dave," Jack once again insists and Katherine swears she can see him bristling under the attention.

Davey's already rummaging in the freezer by the time Jack says that. When he emerges from behind the door, he's got an icepack in hand, which he immediately throws at Jack. Except Jack isn't paying attention so it lands with a soft thud on the couch between the two of them. Jack ignores it.

Davey's standing in front of Jack now, arms crossed, and overall looking more like Jack's older brother or parent than his friend. "Come on Jack. I know where you were this weekend and it wasn't wrestling with Spot." He pauses and gets no response from Jack. "I can call Spot and tell him you were using him as a scapegoat for your injuries again-"

Jack perks up at that and groans. "Fine. One, I don't think so, and no. Happy?" He glares at Davey.

Davey frowns at whatever Jack's cryptic message meant, apparently understanding more of it than she, before mumbling, "you sure?"

Jack stands from his seat on the couch to face Davey, his face softening a little but he doesn't completely drop his glare. "Yeah, I'm fine Dave. Thanks for asking."

The two stare at each other for a moment longer before Jack seems to remember Katherine's presence. He warily looks back at her and waves her towards the front door. "We're gonna be in the basement if you need me," he calls back as he's already halfway through the door.

Katherine grabs the ice pack from where it landed on the couch and shuffles after Jack. She finds him waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. He glances up to confirm she's following before fiddling with a door under the stairwell and walking down in to the darkness. She waits until he flips a light switch before following.

Once in the basement, Katherine looks around to find what appears to be a large art studio, filled with paintings and all the art supplies she could ever imagine. She doubts she could even name most of them.

"The apartments share this basement with the theatre. I guess forever ago when this place was built they were one building." Jack pauses as he leans back to sit a large wooden chest. "Miss Medda lets me use this place to paint and design sets and what not. It works out well I guess."

Katherine wanders over to where he is sitting and sits down beside him, meekly passing over the ice pack. Jack takes it after glaring at it for a moment and just drops it on the chest on his opposite side.

The pair are once again surrounded with uncomfortable silence. Katherine can't take it anymore and finally speaks, "I really am sorry Jack. My father is an ass-" She stops when Jack groans beside her and sets his head in his hands. "Are you okay?" She carefully asks.

After a moment of not moving, Jack leans back and staring straight ahead, quietly says, "I'm fine. Dave worries too much." He looks down at his hands as he fiddles his fingers together on his lap. "And I ain't mad at you – it's probably better you know now so you can find someone else to work with."

"Jack- nothing's changed. I don't want another illustrator and I'm not mad at you or anything."

Jack slowly turns to look at her, his eyes glazed. "You don't mean that."

Katherine hesitantly reaches a hand out and sets it on his shoulder. "I do. My father's an ass for even thinking it was an okay thing to do in the first place." Jack's still looking at where her hand resting on his shoulder, so she slowly pulls it away and clasps her hands together on her lap.

"Is there something here? Like between us? Or am I just imagining things?" Jack quietly asks.

Katherine, taken aback by the sudden change in topic, stutters nonsense for a moment before replying, "If you're asking if I'm interested in you, then yes." Her mind reels, not believing she actually admitted that.

Jack looks at her, slightly confused, "Wait, but aren't you and that Darcy guy…you know-"

She cuts him off before he can finish that statement. "No!" She exclaims before calming herself. "No, Darcy – well, he – he's not." She pauses to compose a coherent sentence. "I've known Darcy forever. He's really more of a brother at this point. We are not together, have not been together, and will never be together."

Jack softly smiles at that, before slowly falling in to a frown again. "Look," he exhales slowly, "before this conversation goes any farther, I want you to know what my record-"

She cuts him off again, "No, Jack, I don't need to know."

"But now you're wondering and I'd rather have the information out there before you make any decisions."

Katherine doesn't respond. She admits that yes, she is curious, but she stands by her previous statement that she trusts Jack. At the same time; however, if he can't move forward without her knowing then so be it.

Jack's fiddling with his hands again and avoiding eye contact. "Dave says it's not even something I need to be worried about telling people and that telling people means it won't just pop up and surprise me. I – I've just had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that it's always going to be a part of who I am – of how other people see me." He takes another deep breath before slowly continuing, "I grew up in the foster system; I've never known any other type of home. It wasn't a great way to live and you know – I thought I could do better on my own so I ran away. A lot. Enough times that they started putting me and cuffs and taking me in to the station when they eventually found me. Did you know if you run away enough it actually goes on your juvenile record?" He glances over at her. Katherine solemnly shakes her head, not wanting to interrupt. "So yeah, I've got a couple of those – I don't even know how many. Then they figured out that putting me in a home with younger kids kept me there so they did that." He stops talking to take some deep breaths.

"Jack – " she starts, but he cuts her off.

"That's not all. My last faster dad, he was a real jerk. A week before my eighteenth birthday my brothers and I asked if we could go to the movies to celebrate since we pretty much knew I'd be kicked out the second I turned eighteen. Stupid Snyder called the cops on me for kidnapping," Jack stops to darkly chuckle at the thought. "Spent the night in a holding cell until my useless social worker showed up and showed them the text on my phone saying I could take my brothers to the movies and proved to them that I was still technically a minor myself."

Katherine waits in the silence for a moment to be sure Jack is truly done this time before scooting over and wrapping her arms around him. She can feel him trembling in the hug. "Jack. This changes nothing. I'm still interested in you as my illustrator and as a potential boyfriend."

Jack turns in her grip to face her, his eyes watery. He roughly rubs away the tears with the back of his wrist. "You mean it?"

"Yes Jack," she softly giggles. "Now will you join me for lunch on Wednesday? Darcy and I have one planned and he's been not-so-subtly insisting I ask you out. And after the library he wants to properly meet you."

Jack genuinely laughs, bringing a smile to her face. "Isn't the guy supposed to ask out the girl?" He raises an eyebrow at her.

She releases him from her hug to lean back and cross her arms. "Welcome to the 21st century, Jack: where anyone can ask anyone out."

He looks at her bewildered for a moment. "Then sure, I'll come," he chuckles.

"Good," Katherine smiles.

"So how about we go upstairs and steal the TV from Davey to watch a movie?" He asks. "No working," he quickly amends.

Katherine place s finger on her chin as she pretends to think about it for a moment before confirming, "Sure, but only if you pretend for Davey's sake that you actually used that ice pack while we were down here talking."

"Fiiiiiiiiinnne," Jack whines as he picks up the ice pack and haphazardly presses it to his arm. "The two of you teaming up is going to be the death of me," he complains as he starts leading the way back towards the stairs.

She hums, "I think this team up is actually putting off your death, but whatever you say."

Back up in the boys' apartment, Davey is at the kitchen table poring over a book, but he looks up and leans back in his chair when they reenter. "So Katherine's still here? See Jack – I told you that wasn't going to chase anyone away." He pointedly looks at the ice pack Jack still grudgingly has clutched to his arm before turning to Katherine. "Good job getting him to actually use the ice pack for once. I was beginning to wonder why we bothered buying them."

Katherine, not paying attention to Jack, just sees the blue ice pack fly through the air to hit the wall beyond Davey.

"Shut up Dave," Jack's voice comes from behind her. "You were the one insisting I use the damn thing even though I told you it was nothing."

"Except 'nothing' to you is something to just about everyone else on the planet," Davey replies, not missing a beat as he closes his book. "Are you hanging out here for a while?"

"I'm so sorry, are you studying? We can go somewhere else," Katherine offers.

Davey waves her suggestion off. "Don't worry about it. I've spent the last couple of days here dealing with Jack's brooding. I'm going to go out and get some fresh air, maybe some pizza."

"Bye Dave!" Jack calls from the couch, even though Davey has yet to make way for the door. "Thanks for babysitting me," he sarcastically adds on before finishing with, "Now come on Kath, what movie should we watch?"

Katherine flops down on the couch besides Jack and he immediately wraps his arm around her shoulders. "Whatever you want."

Jack smirks, "Harry Potter marathon it is then."

"You're not being serious, right? That's like 20 hours," Katherine only half-seriously protests.

"You said anything," Jack smirks as he presses play for the first movie. "Better get comfortable."

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 **Thank you for reading! As always, reviews are loved/appreciated/adored!**


	5. Chapter 5

Katherine glances at the clock on the wall. Twelve thirty. She quickly runs through some mental math. Lunch is at one … the deli is five blocks away … if she speed walks there she can make it in ten minutes … it'll take no more than five minutes to find her coat and purse in the pile of her stuff she'd haphazardly thrown in to her room last time she'd come home – so she can spend about fifteen more minutes brainstorming.

It's cutting it close, especially since Darcy has classes today and will be on a tight schedule that means she can't be late, but this is the first good idea she's had since getting this assignment and she's got to flesh it out as much as she can while it is still fresh in her mind. She sets in to type as many more details and side thoughts down as she can.

A couple dozen more bullet points later, she's interrupted by her phone dinging.

FROM: Darcy

Where are you? Jack and I are here.

She whips her head around to look at the wall clock again to see that much more time passed than she had intended to allow. It is now five past one. She slams her laptop shut, and beelines for her shoe rack as she hastily types out a reply.

TO: Darcy

so sorry lost track of time on my way be there in ten

She hears the whoosh sound signaling the text successfully sent as she's fumbling with her keys to lock the front door. Ten minutes is pushing it.

On the elevator, she gets another couple of texts in quick succession.

FROM: Darcy

OK. Don't rush yourself.

FROM: Darcy

We'll survive.

Katherine smirks at that. She hates that she put the pair of them in such an awkward situation, but she's sure they'll find something to talk about.

FROM: Jack

Is Darcy texting you?

FROM: Jack

I can see he's texting someone. I'm assuming you?

FROM: Jack

Never mind, he just told me.

FROM: Darcy

What are we supposed to talk about?

FROM: Darcy

On the surface we don't seem to have much in common besides you

FROM: Jack

This is awkward.

FROM: Jack

I don't know what to talk about.

FROM: Jack

How much longer until you get here.

Katherine chuckles as she imagines Jack and Darcy sitting at a booth in awkward silence as they both simultaneously text her. As she steps off the elevator, she pulls off to the side and hastily texts them both.

TO: Darcy, Jack

I'm on my way.

TO: Darcy, Jack

In the meantime, you both have reasons to hate my father so start discussion there

She steps back in to the flow of traffic and makes her way over to the deli as quickly as she can. Her phone is vibrating in her pocket, but she ignores it in favor of keeping her hands stowed away from cold instead.

The smell of fresh baked bread washes over Katherine as she steps inside Jacobi's diner. Scanning the small dining room, she quickly spies Jack and Darcy at a booth in the corner. A small smile slides in to place when she sees the pair in active conversation. Jack is smiling as he leans over the booth and waves his hands about; gesturing about something, and Darcy is laughing in response.

Darcy spies her through eyes crinkled in laughter and joyously waves her over to the booth. Jack turns around in his seat to smiles at her as she makes her way over. When she arrives at the booth, he stands and gestures for her to slide in to the booth, which she does. He then plops down beside her.

Katherine shrugs off her coat and stuffs it in to the small gap between herself in the wall.

"So what were you boys talking about? Looked interesting from where I was standing?"

Darcy smirks, "Well we started with your father, like you suggested, but then I found out Jack worked on the set for one of the shows I saw last year so I was asking him about his decisions on that. Small world, huh?"

She looks to Jack who simple shrugs in agreement.

"Wait wait wait wait wait. How did you get from talking about my father to talking about theatre shows?" She asks, confused.

Darcy's smirk gets even wider, "Well you remember that show I took my date to last year that your father found out about and then tried to ruin my relationship with my parents? It was that show."

Jack interjects next, "Even weirder, that was one of our preview performances where the stage manager was out sick, so I was there trying to do her job on top of making sure the sets and props were being taken care of. So there's a pretty good chance we passed by each other at some point during the evening. Medda's theatre isn't that big."

Katherine is about to respond when an older gentleman with a beard stops by their table.

"Jack! Long time no see!" He exclaims.

Katherine watches Jack do a double take before broadly smiling, and replying, "Hey Mr. Jacobi. Don't know why I haven't been by; I live just down the street a couple of blocks." He stands to embrace the older gentleman and pat him on the back before taking his seat back in the booth next to her.

Mr. Jacobi pats his belly as he laughs, "You're always welcome here Jack. I'll send a waiter over your way to take you and your friends orders, okay? On the house today."

Jack's smile falters, "Mr. Jacobi –"

"No objections Jack. My treat for the best waiter I ever had and his friends. Though I'm sure Ms. Medda is making much better use of your talents than I was."

Jack still looks uncomfortable as he leans back in to the booth's seat back. "She keeps me busy, that's for sure."

Mr. Jacobi heartily laughs as he walks away.

Jack still seems distracted so Katherine reaches for one of his hands. He turns her slowly and smiles, "Mr. Jacobi gave me my first ever job when I turned sixteen. Then he teamed up with Davey to get me over to Medda's and she gave me a job and rented Davey and I her spare apartment once I graduated high school." The explanation is simple and succinct, but he doesn't seem eager to elaborate further.

Darcy takes his turn to interject, "Seems like a nice guy. Nice place to work for a first job I imagine."

Jack turns to him and smiles, "Yeah, old Mr. Jacobi is great. He's always kept an eye out for me and made sure I got enough hours."

The table falls in to neither uncomfortable nor comfortable silence and Katherine takes a moment to peruse the menu. It's simple, not a ton of options, but she's able to pick out a sandwich that she thinks she'll like. Glancing over at Jack, she finds him twiddling his thumbs on the table, not even bothering to look at the laminated paper menu in front of him.

"Have a favorite?" Katherine tries to ask playfully as she nudges him with her shoulder.

Jack shrugs, "I was around long enough to try everything the cooks in the back could think up. At this point I just stick with my favorite."

"Pastrami on rye?" A new voice asks. Katherine looks to the end of the table to find a lanky teenager with curly blond hair standing there. His eyes, she blushes as they draw her attention, are a very startling blue.

"Racer?" Jack asks, bewildered sounding, beside her.

The teenager smirks back down at him like he's hiding some special secret. Katherine glances at his nametag, where 'Antonio' is scribbled in messy black ink – likely sharpie.

"Heya Jackie," the boy smirks again. "So you getting pastrami and rye today or did ya finally decide you're tired of that and are going to try something new?"

Jack, seemingly ignoring the second half of the boy's statement stands and embraces the boy in a hug.

From across the restaurant, Katherine can hear Mr. Jacobi yell, "Oh yeah Jack, forgot to tell you about my newest employee."

Jack releases Race from his hug and looks back at where the voice came from to yell back, "Ya sure did Jacobi. Can I borrow him for a minute after this?"

"Sure. Soon as I get your table's orders he's all yours!" Mr. Jacobi calls back.

Katherine spares a glance to the boy, who looks all at once sheepish, scared, and cocky. Another glance over to Darcy reveals him to be sitting back, smiling as he watches everything unfold.

Jack slides back in to the booth beside her and Katherine swears she can feel the tension rolling off him in waves. The forced smile on his face shows him trying his best to hide it from everyone else.

"So Jackie. Pastrami on rye or no?" The boy asks again. He glances over at her this time though before continuing, "Oooooohh, is this Katherine? Did you finally ask her out?"

Katherine's cheeks start to heat up and she knows she is blushing.

Jack glances back at her and his smile turn genuine for a moment as her confirms, "Yep, this is Katherine and nah, she actually asked me out." He pauses to raise his hand from the table and gesture between the pair. "Katherine, this little snot here is my youngest brother Antonio, but he prefers being called Racetrack or Race." On her questioning look, he clarifies, "long story-"

"Awwww, you haven't told her about out nicknames Cowboy?" Race teases.

Katherine giggles as she watches the blush rise of Jack's neck in to his cheeks.

"No- n- Racer. No. I haven't used that name in years. I's an adult now and nobody's gonna buy art from a guy called Cowboy."

Race shrugs. "Suit yourself. I'd rather be Race than _Antonio_ any day and I don't see that changin' anytime soon." He sticks his hand out to Katherine and shows off his brilliant smile, "So yeah, I's Racer. Nice ta finally meet ya; Jack hasn't stopped talkin' about ya. Even Spotty complains-"

Katherine gingerly shakes the boy's hand as Jack cuts him off, "Okay, I think that's enough information for today Race." He glares up at the boy. "And over on the other side of the table is Darcy, Katherine's friend who's basically her Davey I think. We haven't gotten to talk about too much yet."

Race turns to smile and wave at Darcy. "Nice ta meet ya."

Darcy questioningly replies, "I see the resemblance?"

Jack looks as if he is about to answer when Race beats him to it, "Really? I don't think we look alike at all, which, you know, makes sense since we're just foster brothers or ex foster brothers I guess."

Jack playfully smacks Race in the arm and scolds him, "I's explained it to you enough Racer; I shouldn't have to do it again. If we're _just_ anything, its brothers. Not foster brothers and certainly not ex-foster brothers. I still look out for you and Crutchie, don't I?"

Race shrugs before smirking and asking, "So…pastrami and rye?"

Jack sighs and places his head in his hands, "Yes Racer. Pastrami on rye. Same thing I've been getting for forever."

Race doesn't bother to write any of the orders down as he finished up with Katherine's and Darcy's orders and runs off to the kitchen. Jack watches him retreat.

Katherine's attention is drawn away from Jack by Darcy clearing his throat. She turns towards him to find him glancing at his phone. When he notices he's successfully gotten her attention, he says, "I hate to ditch on you guys, but when my food comes I'm going to have to run."

Katherine frowns, "Oh, I'm sorry. Is everything all right?"

Darcy hesitantly nods, "Yeah. It's nothing serious, just you remember that one professor I told you about that has walking pneumonia?" When Katherine nods, he continues, "Well I guess at his doctor's appointment this morning he was cleared to be around people again, so he's uncanceled our class this afternoon. And I really shouldn't miss it."

Jack between the pair of them before holding out his hand to Darcy, "Well it was nice to properly meet you Darcy and I'm sorry you have to run."

Darcy firmly shakes Jack's hand.

"Since you're going to have to get going when the food gets here, I'm going to pull aside my brother and have a quick talk with him before then so I don't have to leave Katherine here alone at the table later."

"I'm glad we actually got to talk this time. And I do hope Kath will bring you along to some more so we can talk more," Darcy confirms.

Jack nods at him before stalking over the counter where Race is spinning on a barstool with a lollipop in his mouth. They quickly engross themselves in conversation.

"I approve," Darcy smiles.

Katherine huffs before rebutting, "You haven't spent more than ten minutes with him."

Darcy shrugs. "Well I like him. He's different and definitely has the potential to keep pissing off your father, which is a double bonus."

She sighs and leans her elbows on to the edge of the table, "Unfortunately I have a feeling that's a two way street and the potential for my father to keep upsetting Jack is there too."

Darcy very purposefully glances over to Jack and Race, who appear to be mid-argument. "Everything okay there?"

Katherine looks over a bit longer. They may be arguing, but Jack looks more distressed and upset than mad. "I think so. From what he's told me, he doesn't get to see his brothers nearly as often as he would like and if they're still with his last foster father, I don't think that environment is-" she pauses as she struggles to find the correct words –"wholly positive."

Darcy frowns at that, but isn't given the chance to respond as Jack and Race return, plates in hand.

"I had Racer bring a to go box and bag for you Darcy in case you get a chance to stay for a couple more minutes before you have to go," Jack says as he slides back in to the booth.

Darcy checks his phone for the time once more before frowning and declining with, "I wish I could but the sooner I get out of here the better chance I have of making it to lecture on time." He hastily slides the contents of his plate in to the plastic to go box and throws it in to the bag. "I'll just have to eat on the way. Or in class." He shrugs. "I'll text ya later Kath." He calls over his shoulder as he makes his way through the door to the deli. The bell chimes as the door opens then closes.

When she looks back to the edge of the table, Race has already disappeared. Looking around, she finds him back at the counter, spinning in one of the tall chairs. Beside her, Jack is mindlessly moving his fries around his plate as he watches Race.

"Everything okay?" She pushes since something is definitely off with him now.

Jack doesn't answer so she gives him some space and starts eating her sandwich. Jack's silence is disconcerting and she tries to change the topic after couple of minutes elapse. "So after our ridiculously long Harry Potter marathon on Monday I went home and had a breakthrough in book ideas."

Jack, whose barely taken more than one bite out of his sandwich turns to look at her, face expressionless, and softly replies, "Yeah? And what might that be?"

Glad to have gotten any reaction out of him at all, Katherine quickly takes a sip of her soda before excitedly continuing, "Well, something you said while we were down in the basement sort of spawned it. Or at least I think it was what you said, otherwise it's just a bit too much of a coincidence."

That gets her a wary glare from Jack, "All we talked about was how crappy my childhood was and I don't think that's going to make for much of a story."

She reaches out and places a hand on Jack's bicep in an attempt to calm him. "No, nothing about that specifically," she feels him relax a little, "but what you said. I think it was about how that's always going to be a part of you – or piece of you, something like that? Then with what you said when we first met, or I guess the second time we met, at the coffee shop about how it should be about encouraging kids to be whatever they want? I'm not sure where exactly it's going yet, but I just had this awesome image of puzzle pieces and a kid picking them up as he figures out bits of who he is and just trying to figure out how it all fits together-" she cuts herself, tired of rambling and cheeks aching from smiling to glance at Jack.

He's smiling. He's actually smiling. "I like it." He rubs at the back of his neck. "Actually, I really like it. I love it even. It's a lot to work with. Do you have any notes you can send me so I can start sketching some ideas?" His fingers twitch around the edge of his napkin, as if already itching to start.

Katherine brings her other hand over to meet her other and gently squeezes Jack's bicep. "Yes, but not now. This is supposed to be a date, isn't it?"

Jack chuckles at that. "Some date. Your best friend is here for half of it, my brother who's magically got a job all of a sudden is our waiter and I ditch you for a little in the middle to talk with him."

She nods in agreement, "It's a first date. We'll do a proper one later."

Jack pulls out from her grip and holds up a finger and he wickedly smiles, "Nuh-uh."

Katherine frowns and suddenly feels sick.

"It's my turn to ask _you_ out and this time we'll go to a proper dinner without any friends or brothers."

At the change in direction Katherine's frown flips and her stomach fills with butterflies. Jack wants to go on another date with her. A real date. "I have a suggestion."

Jack cocks his head at her at that.

"You can choose where we go to dinner first, but on Friday Darcy's family is hosting their annual Christmas gala and I'd love for you to come with me."

Jack scrunches his nose up at the suggestion, "Gala? Like super fancy party-"

"Yes and I'm always bored out of mind so if you will join me for the hour I am required to be there then it would make my year," she adds.

"Well I _guess_ …" he teases. "But we are definitely doing dinner first."

"Deal," Katherine beams and she wraps he arms around him in a light hug.

Jack looks down at his still nearly full plate and over at her half eaten one, "So what do you say we take the rest of this to go and you give me your notes and ideas so I can start sketching?"

She doesn't even get a chance to accept his suggestion before he's jumping up from the table and snatching to go boxes from behind the deli counter. Mr. Jacobi playfully swats him as he runs away, cackling and smiling.

He doesn't even sit when he makes it back to the table; just quickly boxes up their food, tucks the boxes under his arm and gestures for her to get up. "Well come on, I want to get started."

As they walk down the street, Katherine realizes she doesn't know what direction they are heading. "Where are we going?"

Jack wraps an arm around her shoulders and pulls her closer. "My place. That's where all my drawing stuffs at. Unless we need to go to your place?"

Katherine shakes her head no. "I never go anywhere without my laptop. It's in my bag." Before she can think better of asking, her curiosity takes hold and she once again asks, "Was everything okay with you and Race? Your discussion seemed to get a bit heated."

The arm around her shoulder stiffens but doesn't depart as Jack sighs, "It's not Racer I'm upset with. My issue is more with Snyder than him."

"Your brothers are still with him?" She quietly and hesitantly asks.

"Yeah," he sadly responds. "See, Snyder made me go out and find a job the second I was sixteen and I had to work however many hours a week he decided I needed to."

Katherine can feel his tension and interrupts, "Jack, I shouldn't have asked. You don't have to explain-"

The arm around her shoulder wraps a little tighter again. "No, it's okay. Dave says I've got to get better at talking about this stuff. Anyways, I wasn't a good student to begin with and working all the time made my grades even worse. I made a deal with Snyder when I left that he wouldn't make Racer or Crutchie get jobs cause I want them to focus and do well in school. They're both super smart; Racer with numbers and Crutchie with just about everything else so they both have a chance to actually do well and go to college and be successful. I don't want Snyder ruining their future too."

Katherine frowns. "There's different types of success Jack and I'd say you're doing pretty well for yourself. Very few people make it in the arts and you are – you have done it!"

It doesn't cheer Jack up any as he continues, "If it wasn't for Dave I wouldn't have even graduated. I barely made it. I want Racer and Crutchie to actually make it. Go to colleges and get real jobs."

She tries a different tactic, "Well colleges like seeing jobs on college applications. Make you seem more well-rounded."

That gets a chuckle out of Jack. "I guess. Doesn't change the fact that Snyder broke my deal with him and he'll make Racer work way more than any sixteen-year-old should."

"Well then you talk to Mr. Jacobi about not giving him too many hours. You said he was good at working with you," she suggests.

Jack winces at that and doesn't explain beyond, "I guess it's worth a shot."

By now they've arrived to Jack's apartment and as he fumbles around in his pockets for his keys, his excitement seems to return. Once the door is unlocked, he swings it open, turns to face her and smiles, "Let's get to work!"

Katherine smiles back and as she walks through the door she mumbles, "Heigh-ho heigh-go, off to work we go." Jack genuinely laughs at that as he swings the front door shut behind them.

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 **Thank you for reading! As always, reviews are appreciated/loved/adored!**


	6. Chapter 6

Katherine's phone dings from across the room. She expects it is Jack, sending a picture of another sketch for their book; just as he's been doing on the dot every thirty minutes over the last couple of hours. The phone chimes again before she's able to make it across the room to read even the first message.

FROM: Unknown Number

Hi Katherine. This is Davey. I stole your number from Jack's phone; hope you don't mind.

FROM: Unknown Number

So Jack is freaking out trying to pick out an outfit because he doesn't know what color you wearing and he says he has to match. He gets weird about colors and clashing and all that sort of stuff. I guess it's his 'artist eye' or whatever.

Katherine giggles as she reads the texts and adds Davey to her contact list. As she does so, another text comes in.

FROM: Davey

Long story short he thinks asking you what you are wearing tonight would be creepy, but I'm also tired of watching him destroy his closet trying to find something both 'color neutral' and festive. So what color are you wearing?

TO: Davey

Green. Like dark green.

TO: Davey

Does he know you are texting me?

FROM: Davey

Thank you; he's got a good tie that'll match. I think he threw it at me a while ago.

FROM: Davey

And no.

FROM: Davey

Now he does. He just jumped over the couch in search of the tie he threw at me earlier.

FROM: Davey

How much longer until you guys meet up?

Katherine glances at the clock on her bedside table. Jack's supposed to be picking her up in just under an hour. She really needs to finish getting ready.

TO: Davey

He's supposed to pick me up in just under an hour. He'll be out of your hair soon.

TO: Davey

:)

FROM: Davey

I'll let you finish getting ready then.

FROM: Davey

I'll hide his sketchbook so he doesn't try and bring it with him.

Katherine smiles as she sets down her phone again to return to her bathroom. She's fairly certain that there won't be any issues with Jack trying to bring along his sketchbook as he was the one who insisted that this be a 'real date' without any brothers, friends, or book stuff.

It's just when she's zipping up her dress that her phone dings again. She makes way to where she threw her phone on the bed earlier and sits on the edge, enjoying her last few moments without heels for the evening.

FROM: Jack

I'm in the lobby.

FROM: Jack

The desk person is staring at me funny. Am I supposed to check in or something?

TO: Jack

He's just there for mail and package deliveries. Just get on the elevator. Eleventh floor, room 113.

As the phone sends off her text, Katherine heads off to her closet in search of her black boot heels. Honestly, it's much too cold and snowy to be wearing any sort of heels, but she figures that the boots are a decent compromise. No exposed skin, but still dressy enough to not negatively stand out at Darcy's family party. She finally finds them tucked behind some comfy boots (which most certainly are not the correct style to go with this dress) in the back of her closet.

She's just zipped them on when she hears knocking at the front door.

"Be right there!" She yells as she digs in her heels to make sure they are all the way in the boots before scuffling towards the front door.

Katherine opens the door to find Jack sheepishly fidgeting with a winter coat draped over his arm. She can't help but blush when she notices just how nice he looks. His black suit is nicely tailored and he's paired it with a dark grey vest and green tie that matches her dress so well it might as well have been cut from the same cloth.

"Wow." Jack's comment cuts her out of her thoughts. "You look…amazing. I thought I was overdressed but now I don't feel dressed up enough."

She blushes at the compliment and forces out, "Thank you." She then grabs him by his arm to pull him inside and finishes with, "You look incredible yourself – certainly not underdressed." She smiles when she sees Jack's gawking face and accompanied blush.

"I'll just be one moment. I need to grab a jacket," Katherine insists as she breaks away to search through her coat rack.

"Yeah, it's freezing out there," Jack offhandedly comments.

Katherine turns to face him as she tugs on her coat. "I thought you didn't get cold?"

Jack's smile falters for a moment as he shrugs, simply replying, "It ain't cold outside. It's freezing. Big difference."

She shrugs off Jack's remark and braces herself for how cold outside it must be if _Jack_ is complaining. "Well then why aren't you wearing your coat?" She teases as she meets him back at the door, which he graciously opens for her to walk through.

Katherine turns to lock her door while Jack replies, "Well it's snowing outside so my coat was all wet and I didn't want it to drip all over the floor." After a moment of silence, he concludes, "The more I think about it the more ridiculous it sounds, I know." He even chuckles at his own admission.

Throwing her key ring back in her purse, Katherine turns to face Jack and says, "Not ridiculous, but we should get going so we don't have to be rushed at dinner. Or be late for the party – not that Darcy will really care on way or another."

Dinner goes well with light conversation and a shared tiramisu at the end, which Jack had insisted on getting even after she told him more dessert than he could ever possible imagine would be served at the party. Katherine can truly say she was enjoying herself. It looked like Jack was having a good time too, or at least she hoped he was. The evening is not even over yet and she's already thinking about how much she'd like to do this again.

The snow is significantly heavier as they exit the restaurant, so much so that Katherine orders a cab against Jack's wishes. He's right, of course, that Darcy's address is only a few blocks away, but there are still cabs on the road and it is certainly much safer to be inside one than on the sidewalk. In the end, Jack hadn't put up too much of a fight. She thinks it is because even he is finding the weather to be a bit too much to bear.

During the ride there, Katherine can feel the nervous energy rolling off of Jack, and she tries her best to calm him.

"There's nothing to be nervous about you know," she prompts.

Jack looks up at her from where he'd been fiddling his fingers, which for once are free of paint specks. "I'm not nervous."

Katherine cocks her eyebrow at him and crosses her arms. That was a bad lie and Jack knows it.

He sighs and slumps his shoulders a little. "Okay, okay, yeah I'm a bit nervous. You go to one of these things at least once a year and I've never been to something near as fancy sounding as this. On top of that, won't your dad be there? He already has it out for me and you said you were bringing me along so your evening would be better and I don't want to make it your worse one yet and-" he cuts himself off to suck in a deep breathe, obviously overwhelmed.

Katherine reaches across the back seat to grab one of his hands, which is shaking ever so slightly. She's not sure if it's from the nerves or the cold. "Jack. You will be fine. There's nothing to be nervous about. Yeah, this party sounds fancy and everything but it's mainly going to be a load of Darcy's parents' friends getting drunk and complaining about how their horse didn't win the Kentucky Derby or whatever." She pauses for a moment before continuing, "and no, my father is no longer welcome at Darcy's family events. He's managed to burn that bridge recently."

The cab pulls up to the curb in front of Darcy's house and Katherine releases Jack's hand to pass forward a stack of cash to the driver and mumble, "keep the change". She then goes to open her door only to find Jack has somehow already rushed out the other side without her noticing to open it for her.

He holds out his hand for her to take and smiles. Katherine graciously accept it and lets him pull her to his side as she steps out of the car.

"I didn't get to finish," she starts as they make slow progress towards the front door, which is partially obscured by the thick snowfall. She can hear the string quartet faintly playing inside as they approach. "You really don't have to worry about anything. You being here is already making this year's party better than any of the other ones I've ever had to attend." She blushes and internally reprimands herself for how cheesy that really sounds. "Normally I end up sulking in a corner by myself because Darcy is being kept busy with hosting and everyone else is just interested in getting as drunk as they can on the most expensive liquor they can find."

They've made it to the door by now and are just standing awkwardly outside. Jack points this out with a smile and, "So, uh, should I knock?"

They're not given the chance as the door slides open to a reveal Darcy, backed by the sound of the string quartet playing some sort of waltz and the delicious smells of the catered food. He nonchalantly leans against the doorframe and glances at the grandfather clock to the side of the entryway. "Just on time. Finally, some non-inebriated people to take my attention." He gestures for them to come in.

They step in and Katherine is more than grateful for the warmth that washes over them. She shrugs off her coat as Jack does the same beside here and Darcy takes them to hang in the coat closet. "That bad already?" She asks with a wince.

Darcy looks back over his shoulder at her, eyes wide and confirms, "Oh yeah. It's all worse now that I've been made more than aware of the signs of alcohol poisoning by my professors. I keep thinking I'm seeing the symptoms, then I have to remind myself that this year is no different than any other."

Katherine hums in response, not quite sure what to say. Jack takes over for her; however, leaning forward and extending his hand to Darcy. "Good to see you again man."

Darcy smiles and takes Jack's hand, which must still be cold from the snow because he continues with, "Woah, it's still getting colder out there? Must be some crazy storm coming in."

Katherine nods, "Yeah, it's gotten worse every time we've stepped outside this evening."

Darcy frowns, "I'll do my best to not keep you too long then – don't want you guys trying to get home if it gets too much worse outside." They fall in to awkward silence for a moment before the sound of glass breaking comes from the room off to the right. Darcy winces and excuses himself with a quick, "Sorry, got to check on that. Find me before you leave though?"

"Of course," Katherine confirms as Darcy is already exiting the room.

Jack shifts beside her uncomfortably. "So- what now?"

She shrugs. "Really all I have to do is make sure to greet Darcy's parents and stay long enough for it not be to be considered rudely leaving early when I do leave."

They stand there in silence for a moment when a noticeable buzzing starts come from Jack's coat pocket. He glances over to her with an apologetic look before she insists, "Answer it Jack. At least see who it is and if it is important."

Jack's face loses its tension at her insistence before he slide his phone out of the pocket. He gives a quizzical look at the caller ID before tapping the screen to answer the call with a hesitant, "Hello?"

Katherine watches as a flurry of emotions slide across Jack's face.

"Racer? Wait, wait, wait – slow down," Jack begins.

Upon realizing it is Jack's brother on the phone, she makes to leave and give him some privacy. Jack seems to notice her attempted retreat; however, as he places a hand on her upper arm and gives her a pleading look.

"What do you mean Jacobi won't let you leave?" He inquires.

Jack smirks before settling in to a frown. "Can't Spot come and get ya?" A pause as he listens to Race's response. "No no no, don't call Dave. He's spending the night studying for his last final on Monday."

Katherine gives Jack an apologetic look as she interjects softly with, "What's wrong? Can I help?" She can feel the anxiousness rolling off of Jack.

He gives her a contemplating look before telling Race, "One second Racer, I's got to talk to Kath." He then pulls the phone away from his ear to tell say, "Jacobi's closing up early because the storm is getting so bad, but he doesn't want Racer walking home alone in this weather and of course Snyder won't go and get him."

She frowns at the mention of Jack's old foster father and briefly wonders why the man ever became a foster parent in the first place. He doesn't seem particularly interested in parenting. Placing a hand on Jack's forearm, she says, "Tell him we'll go and get him. You'll spend the rest of the night worrying about him if you don't and I think that's a valid enough excuse to skip out on this party."

Jack earnestly smiles at her before bringing the phone back up to his ear and saying, "Race, ya still there? Yeah, I'll be over as quick as I can. I think you're probably about twenty minutes from where I am. Just hold tight, okay?" He keeps the phone to his ear for another second before hanging it up and giving Katherine another apologetic look. "I'm so sorry our dates keep getting interrupted."

"Don't worry about it. Family is more important," she insists before hesitantly adding, "But why didn't you tell him I'd be coming too?"

Jack looks to the floor and answers, "I know ya hates this party and everything, but at least it's warm and dry here. I figured I'd go deal with Racer then come back and pick you up?" Only after he's trailed off does he meet her eyes again.

Katherine deflates a little at the prospect of being left at this party alone before forcing herself to shake away the feeling. Jack was just looking out for her and she still hadn't shaken off the chill she'd gotten during their brief walk from the taxi to Darcy's porch. She reluctantly goes and grabs Jack's coat from the closet (there's no need to bother Darcy) and hands it to him with, "Fine, but will you at least keep your phone out so I can text you in my boredom?"

Jack chuckles as he shrugs on his coat, "Sure thing. I'll be back in just under an hour I think so long as Racer's ready to go when I get there." With that he lets himself out.

Katherine pulls out her phone to send off a quick text.

TO: Jack

Don't take too long. :)

FROM: Jack

I've barely made it to the sidewalk!

FROM: Jack

But sure, I'll be quick.

Katherine tucks her phone away and goes to find Darcy's parents, a sure distraction and the one pair of people she actually had to interact with before leaving. They are well on the way to being drunk by the time she finds them, so the conversation doesn't last long. Before Katherine knows it, she's lounging in a cushioned chair by a fire in one of the back sitting rooms.

FROM: Jack

Just got Racer.

FROM: Jack

He says hi

TO: Jack

Hi Race

FROM: Jack

this is race I stole jacks phone whys he dressed up all fancy

Katherine can't help but giggle at Race's question and the sharp distinction between his and Jack's texting styles.

TO: Jack

He is my date for my friend's Christmas gala this evening

FROM: Jack

good job ise never seen cowboy in a suit before

FROM: Jack

Sorry, got my phone back. Almost to Snyder's then I'll be on my way back.

TO: Jack

Cowboy?

FROM: Jack

Old nickname. Don't use it anymore.

She's dying to know the story behind that nickname, but before she can text back another couple of party guests enter the small sitting room and insist on making drunken small talk with her. By the time she leaves, a full twenty minutes has passed. She checks her phone to not find any new texts from Jack.

TO: Jack

Drop off Race okay?

Katherine gathers her purse and the small cocktail napkin of roasted nuts she'd grabbed from the buffet to make way for the front entryway. Jack can't be too far away now.

TO: Jack

Almost back?

When yet another twenty minutes pass after sending that text without a response from Jack, Katherine is worried. Glancing through the front windows, she can see the weather has not lightened up at all and has possibly gotten even worse. And Jack had been super responsive before dropping Race off.

A knock finally breaks her out of her anxious thoughts and Katherine rushes to the door to find Jack on the other side. He sheepishly smiles at her and holds up his evidently broken cell phone, "I figure you've been texting me, but I dropped my phone and it very broke. I'm sorry."

Katherine smiles and shakes her head. She'd been worrying over nothing. "You had me worried. You want to come in or just get going?"

"Well I figure you've spent more than your hour here, so you want to go?"

She smiles and grabs her coat from the coat closet, shrugging it on quickly and meeting him at the door. "Absolutely."

It's only after the door has slammed shut behind him and Katherine takes Jack's freezing cold hand that she realizes his coat is missing. "Jack! Where's your coat?"

Jack scowls. "Snyder still hasn't bought Racer a winter coat so I gave him mine." He then shrugs it off as if it isn't a big deal and he wasn't shivering.

He has started tugging them forward down towards the sidewalk, but Katherine digs her feet in and insists, "Well let me go ask Darcy if you can borrow one of his. It's much too cold outside and I'm sure he won't mind."

Jack shakes his head and tugs on her hand gently. "I'll be fine. It's just a couple of blocks."

The tone of Jack's voice indicates that he is no way interested in debating this, so Katherine reluctantly gives in. The more time they argue about it, the longer time they'll be outside in the cold. She shuffles up to stand next to Jack and squeezes his hand a little tighter. "Okay, let's go," she gives in quietly.

By the time they've reached her apartment building, not fifteen minutes later, Jack's no longer shivering and Katherine's the one tugging him along. They pause at the door and he doesn't even seem to notice they've stopped. Katherine hesitates for a moment before just tugging him along inside and in to the elevator. He can just spend the night on her couch. There's no way she can take sending him home in this weather. She wouldn't even know if he made it on account of his broken phone.

The elevator dings to signal the arrival at her floor and Katherine tugs a still oblivious Jack along behind her. She fumbles through her purse with frozen fingers to find her keys and jams them in to the lock as fast as possible to gain entry to her apartment. Grabbing Jack's hand again, she shivers at how cold his fingers feel in hers and tugs him inside and straight to her bathroom.

For the first time since hallway through the walk home, she attempts conversation, "Jack?" Jack looks at her and his eyes slowly focus. She can almost hear the gears slowly turning in his head. "Shower and warm up. Throw your wet clothes on the floor, I'm sure I've got something around here that'll fit you, okay?"

Jack, much to her relief, doesn't protest and just nods. She excuses herself and exits back in to her bedroom to change in to her own comfy clothes and find something dry for Jack to wear. She's sure that she's got a pair of Darcy's old sweats laying around somewhere and plenty generically large free t-shirts from various college events in a drawer in her closet. Not the warmest, but a blanket on top of that will help.

By the time she's changed and found clothes for Jack, she's relieved to hear the water running in her bathroom. She also hears her phone ringing in the kitchen and slides in there to find it just before it goes to voicemail.

 _"_ _Katherine?"_ Darcy's voice comes from the other end of the line.

"Hey Darce. Sorry we left without saying goodbye."

 _"_ _Don't worry about it. You did miss Mr. Stevens and Mr. Peterson get in to a full brawl in the middle of the parlor though."_ Darcy chuckles even as he relays the event.

Katherine rolls her eyes and sarcastically replies, "Oh yeah, so sad I missed it."

 _"_ _Anyways, when I realized you guys were gone I just wanted to check in and make sure you made it back okay."_

"Yeah, we're both back at my place-"

 _"_ _OOoooooh – BOTH of you? As in Jack is spending the night?"_

"Really Darce? Really? By the time we got back to my place Jack was so cold he wasn't even shivering anymore and I don't know, he just seemed a little, off? And he broke his phone so I didn't want him out there like that alone."

Darcy hums on the other end of the line. _"He should be happy he's got you looking out for him. It's possible he was getting a little hypothermic so just keep an eye out, okay?"_

"Of course, thanks Darce. Is it okay if I call you if anything else seems off?"

 _"_ _You better,"_ Darcy laughs.

Suddenly the lights in Katherine's apartment go out and it's only illuminated by the moon-lit snow falling outside her uncovered windows.

"Hey Darce? You still there?" She hesitantly asks, unsure if the blackout would effect her cell service.

 _"_ _Yeah, what's wrong?"_ Darcy confirms, his concern evident.

"My power just went out. I've got to go light some candles and make sure Jack's okay, all right?"

 _"_ _Yeah call if you need anything. Worst case scenario power is still on here and we'll find a way to get both of you back here."_

"Thanks Darce. Goodnight!"

 _"_ _Night!"_

Katherine hangs up her phone and checks the battery percentage – 82%. She's lucky she charged it earlier that day. She throws it on the couch and is about to go light some candles when she hears a crash from her bedroom. "Jack? Everything okay?" She calls as she carefully rushes back there. Knowing herself, she's probably left shoes and other prime tripping hazards scattered around her apartment and she doesn't want to trip.

She blushes when she gets back there only to find a dripping wet Jack standing in the middle of her bedroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Jack, you okay?" She hesitantly asks again when she notices him trembling slightly and his accelerated breathing.

Jack whips his head around to see her and visibly relaxes a little before closing the space between them and wrapping her in a hug. Katherine hesitantly hugs him back.

"Jack? Please talk to me," she quietly implores as he seems to calm down.

She can feel and hear him take a deep breath before replying in a strained voice, "Sorry. I – I just – the lights went off and the room was dark and I panicked."

Katherine tightens her embrace a little. "It's okay Jack, you're okay."

They stay like that for a couple moments longer until Katherine slowly steps out of the embrace. She makes her way to the pile of clothes she'd found for Jack earlier. "I found these for you. Hopefully they fit well enough," she says softly as she turns back around to find Jack still unabashedly standing there. She can feel the heat rising in her cheeks when she catches a better look of Jack shirtless. The moment is broken; however, when she catches sight of a bruise across Jack's ribs.

She hesitantly reaches out and brushes her fingers across it, clinging to some hope that it wasn't real. "What happened?"

Jack shrugs. "Slipped on some ice and slid in to a bench. Didn't think it would bruise."

Even with how casually and assured Jack says that, she can't quite force herself to believe it. She doesn't want to press though and just ends up just handing him the pile of clothes. "I'll be in the living room," she whispers as she exits the room.

Her phone is ringing again when she gets there and she jumps over the back of the couch to grab it; answering it while she relaxes in to the cushions.

"Hello?"

 _"_ _Katherine? Hi, this is Davey by the way. Is Jack with you?"_

Katherine is about to respond, but Davey just keeps talking.

 _"_ _He said he'd be home by now and the last time I heard from him was a text saying he was going to go walk Race back to Snyder's place? And I haven't heard from him since. I can't call Race or I would have and no one else has heard from him-"_

"Davey!" Katherine interjects the rambling boy. She can hear him take a deep breath on the other end of the line. "He's here with me. He's fine – or at least he's telling me he is. The weather got really bad outside and I insisted he stay here until it passed." Sure, that wasn't exactly what happened, but Davey already seemed to be freaking out. She doesn't need to worry him more.

 _"_ _Thank goodness. I was really worried. He's always been good at checking in and when he stopped responding I just freaked out."_

Jack takes the moment to enter the living room. He gives her a quizzical look as he also slumps on the couch, curling up next to her and pulling the blanket from the couch back over the pair of them.

"Dave, he's right here now; you want to talk to him?"

 _"_ _Please. If he won't give you too much fuss over it."_

Katherine doesn't even give Jack the choice, just setting the phone in his hand. He tiredly glares at her.

"Hey Dave. I'm fine. Sorry I didn't respond; my phone's broken."

She watches as Jack busies himself with fiddling with the blanket's fringe border as he listens to Davey.

Jack lowers his voice and softens his tone a bit. "No Dave, really, nothing happened."

Katherine looks away in a feeble attempt to give Jack some privacy, but still overhears his half of the conversation.

"Why do you have to keep pushing it?"

"If I just tell you any answer to your stupid system will you let it go?"

Katherine can hear Dave's yelling from the other end of the line, but not clear enough to make out any words. Jack seems to give up, lose all tension, at whatever Davey says though.

"I know Dave. I'm sorry. You know-"

"One, hopefully no, and sort of. Happy?"

"Yeah I'll be fine Dave. I'll be back tomorrow - call you from Kath's phone first so you know I'm coming."

"Night."

Jack looks at the phone tiredly as he hangs it up and hands it back to Katherine. She just places it on the coffee table and pulls more of the blanket over her shoulders.

"Thank Kath, for bringing me in here and putting up with Davey worrying after me," Jack quietly says. "If you don't want me to stay-"

Katherine frowns. "You're staying Jack. The weather is way too insane for you to be outside and there's a power outage so no streetlights to helps cars see you while they try to drive through this stuff."

Jack wraps his arm around her shoulder and pulls them closer. His other arm follows not long after, wrapping her in his warm embrace. She leans in to it and hesitantly asks, "I know you're tired of people asking, but really Jack, are you okay?"

He puts his chin on her shoulder. "Yeah. Just mad about Snyder, which is nothing new, and worried about Race and Crutchie. Also nothing new."

In an attempt to distract him and change the subject, she asks, "So has Davey always been like this?"

Jack chuckles and Katherine counts that as a win. "Yeah. Ever since he forced his way in to my life in high school he's been following me around and mothering me."

"Forced his way in to your life? I thought you guys were like best friends?" She asks, a bit surprised.

"We are now, but back in high school I didn't want any friends – didn't have time for them. But when Davey moved to our school he picked me out as his friend and never gave up until I reluctantly gave in."

"Well I like him. I'm glad you let him in," Katherine smiles.

Jack pulls out of the hug for moment to smirk at her, "Oh – passing judgement on my friends now?"

Katherine smiles and playfully pushed him, "No! I just think it's good you've got him around."

He smiles even wider as he pulls her back in to the hug. "Yeah – I've got so much to thank him for. Wait – how did he get your number?"

"He got it from your phone this morning to text me about my dress color so your tie could match," she teases.

"What!? I though he was just texting you on my phone! Guess I don't have to worry about changing the password to keep him out now though with my phone as broken as it is." A moment of silence. "I'll just have to remember not to tell him the new one."

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 **Thank you for reading! Please comment/review - they make my day**


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